Slytherin Sisters: Part II
by Squirrel Patronus
Summary: Eileen and Severus end their visit. Eileen, Severus, Prof. Beery and W.A.D.A. belong to J.K. Rowling; other characters are mine. "By the Beautiful Sea" is by Harold Atteridge and Harry Carroll.


Pandora lay the photograph down on the table. The four girls in the picture continued to wave and smile, happy to be young and carefree on a bright spring day. She looked up at Eileen.

"Do you still see Brunella?" Pandora inquired.

"I last saw her about seven years ago. She was travelling to North America to do research for a book on Native American sorcery. She's still there as far as I know."

"She certainly is leading an interesting life," Pandora commented.

* * *

"Your father has had such an interesting career," Eileen told Pandora. The four girls were seated on the porch of the house. They were staring up at the evening sky, waiting for the stars to come out. Pandora had assured them that the skies were clearer and the constellations more beautiful when seen from the coast.

"Yes, he has. Daddy told me once that the worst thing that can happen to a person is to live an unfulfilled life."

"Well, I am certainly not going to waste my life," Brunella announced. "I am going to travel around the world. I want to learn all that there is to know about magic in other cultures. I feel so isolated here! There is a great big world out there, and the history of the magical world is certainly vaster than anything that old shroud Binns taught us!"

"I want to open an apothecary," Eileen said. "I've already mentioned the idea to my parents and they said that they would loan me the seed money. They told me that I would have to work at an established apothecary first to learn all of the practicalities of running a business, but that is fine. It would be wonderful to brew potions all day!"

"It will be an actor's life for me!" Ethel sang. "I'll be attending the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts! I love the stage! It is the best feeling in the world when you bring down the house!"

"Bring down the house! You nearly burned down the Great Hall with your last performance!" Brunella exclaimed. "The Fountain of Fair Fortune" my arse! It was more like "The Raging Cauldron!" Poor Professor Beery! After he got caught in the cross-fire of those hexes you and Frances were firing at each other I'm not surprised he retired!"

"Well, I wasn't the one who performed the engorgement spell on the Ashwinder! Also, it wasn't my fault that Roderick thought that I was prettier than that Gryffindor cow!" Ethel retorted. Eileen laughed along with the others. The first play to be performed at Hogwarts had also turned out to be the last one. An engorged Ashwinder had burst into flames, burning the set and causing panicked students to flee. The leading man had fallen in love with Ethel one hour before the performance, unceremoniously dumping his girlfriend, who had been the female lead. She had turned on Ethel as the fire spread through the Great Hall. The two girls had dueled fiercely, seriously injuring the hapless Professor Beery.

"So, what will you do after we graduate, Pandora?" Eileen asked after the giggles had subsided.

"Nothing that would seem very exciting to you," Pandora replied. "I would be perfectly happy as a wife and mother. I've always wanted to have a family. I hope that my children love the seaside as much as I do."

* * *

"Do your daughters like the seaside?" Eileen asked Pandora.

"Oh, they love it! I take them to my parents' house every summer. You should see the collection of shells that Wendy has in her room."

"I saw Ethel in a play where she emerged from a shell," Eileen said. "Some muggle production about the birth of Venus. I think that I have the review here."

Eileen searched through the envelope and handed a tattered newspaper clipping to Pandora.

"I never understood why Ethel did not pursue a career in the wizard theater," Pandora remarked as she read the notice. "I saw her in several student productions when she was at W.A.D.A. She was brilliant."

"I know why," Eileen said dully. "She fell in love with a muggle."

"I heard that she married one," Pandora said softly. We lost touch with each other after she started acting in the muggle world. I didn't hear anything about her again until, well..."

"Yes." Eileen set her tea down. She frowned as she twisted the plain gold band on her left hand.

* * *

"Has that dreadful matchmaker paid a visit to you yet?" Pandora asked Eileen. It was too early and too cold to go swimming, but the girls had removed their stockings and were walking along the edge of the surf.

"Matchmaker? You're using one?" Ethel looked stunned. "I thought that arranged marriages were a thing of the past in the wizard world!"

"They are for the most part," Eileen replied. "It's really just a formality now for pure-blood families. They want to make sure that when purebloods marry each other there's no danger of inbreeding. The matchmaker comes to your house, speaks with you and your parents and asks you some questions. If she is satisfied that you meet the pure-blood requirements she adds you on her registry."

"Registry? How appalling! Imagine marrying someone you didn't know!" Ethel was defensive and sensitive about her half-blood status.

"Well, it can work!" Pandora interjected. "My parents had an arranged marriage and they ended up falling in love with each other!"

"They were lucky then!" Brunella snorted. "That old hag paid a visit to my house before Christmas. She asked me all sorts of annoying, personal questions. She kept calling me sweetheart. I couldn't stand it! I finally told her that I didn't like men. She looked at me all surprised and then started going on in that condescending tone of hers that there was a good man for every marriageable young girl and that I had nothing to be nervous or scared about. I told her I wasn't nervous or scared-I just was not interested in men and those dangly parts between their legs. I then told her that if there were any interesting, smart pure-blood women on the registry I wouldn't mind meeting them. You could have heard a grain of sand drop in that room!"

"You said that!" Eileen was torn between admiration and apprehension at her friend's pluck. "What did your parents say?"

"Well, Mum has known for a long time-she didn't say anything at all. Dad hugged me and said that he was relieved that he didn't have to pay for a big, over-blown wedding. Then he told the matchmaker to get out of his house and told her what she could do with her feckin' registry!" Brunella smiled triumphantly.

Eileen wished, not for the last time, that she had Brunella's nerve. The matchmaker was due for a visit to her house after graduation. The preservation of blood purity was tantamount to anything else in a marriage for her family, even love. Her parents' marriage was also arranged, but it was nothing at all like the one that Pandora's parents had.

* * *

"Ethel married for love," Eileen said quietly. "She met her husband when she was acting in one of the plays that he had written. She became his muse."

"Is it worth it, Eileen? Marrying for love?" Pandora had a queer look on her face.

"Why would you think that I would know the answer to that, Pandora?" Eileen snapped. "It certainly didn't do Ethel any good in the end!"

Eileen withdrew the last newspaper clipping from the envelope.

"I don't know what you heard. I read this in the muggle newspaper." Eileen began to read the article out loud, although every word had been burned into her brain.

* * *

Scotland Yard Stumped by Mysterious Death

By Brian Willoughby

The cause of death of a young couple found two weeks ago in their Kensington flat continues to evade investigators. Playwright Simon Levine, 27, and his wife, actress Ethel Carrington, 22, were found in the parlor by their landlord, Joseph Vickers. Detective Jeremy Cross has advised that there were no signs of breaking and entering. No valuables were missing and there were no signs of struggle. The bodies showed no signs of physical violence.

"It is a curious situation," Detective Cross said in an interview with this paper. "The young woman was seated in a chair with a book in her lap. She was staring wide-eyed at the fireplace. Her husband was slumped against the wall opposite the fireplace. He had a pistol in his hand and one bullet was fired. We searched the flat but could not find the bullet. No signs of blood, either. In all of my years I have never seen such a strange case."

"It was as if their hearts had simply stopped beating," Detective Cross confirmed. "How and why? That is the mystery."

Friends and associates of the couple have stated that they were well-liked and did not have any known enemies ("Unless you count theater critics," says a friend who wishes to remain anonymous). Mr. Levine was one of the new young talents among London playwrights. His most recent works "Boticelli's Muse" and "Bewitched and Bedazzled" were well-received and had long runs. Both plays starred Miss Carrington, whom he recently married.

"She was a beautiful young lady," a shaken Joseph Vickers told this reporter. "Her husband adored her. I cannot believe that they are dead."

Anyone with information is asked to please contact Detective Jeremy Cross at Scotland Yard.

* * *

Eileen folded the article and looked at Pandora. The blood had drained from the woman's face.

"That is so...so terrible," Pandora whispered. "The Prophet mentioned an untimely death in her obituary but no details."

"That is because the influence of the Death Eaters is everywhere!" Eileen said heatedly. "Ethel was a half-blood, but she was a Slytherin and the daughter of a prominent pure-blood. Marrying a muggle and leaving the magical world to pursue a profession in the muggle world was akin to treason in their eyes. She was murdered as an example!"

"I heard that her father was heartbroken. He set up a scholarship at W.A.D.A. in her name," Pandora said softly.

"A hell of a lot of good that will do! Keeping her name alive will not bring her back! If her father had shown as much love, care and attention towards her when she was alive this might not have happened!" Eileen angrily brushed away the tears that had appeared in her eyes. Another life unfulfilled. Ethel's dream had been cut short by the Avada Kedavra spell. Eileen's dream of the apothecary had been destroyed by her own poor choices. What about Pandora's dream? She had her children and her beautiful home, but was she happy?

"What happened to us, Pandora?"

Pandora did not reply. Eileen had noticed her friend going deep into her own thoughts more than once during their visit. What was she thinking? Eileen stared into her friend's eyes, using her long dormant Legilimency skills.

* * *

A man and a woman were standing on the cold, tiled floor of a bathroom. The man was naked from the waist up and was gripping the sink basin. He was tall, lean and grey. He was bleeding from a wound to his right shoulder. His face was contorted with pain and fury.

Pandora was waving her wand over the wound, murmuring a complex healing spell. The wound puckered and pulsated under the magic emanating from her wand. As if by a magical magnet, a hard metallic object emerged from the man's wound, falling into the sink with a sharp "clink." It was a bloody bullet.

The man slowly let go of the sink. He had a large tattoo on the inside of his left forearm, a serpent emerging from the mouth of a skull. In a flash he drew his wand, aiming it at Pandora. She gave a strangled cry as she crumbled to the floor.

"That hurt, you stupid, useless cow! Can't you even perform a simple healing spell?"

"You will not speak of this to anyone! Crucio!" A red flash streamed out of his wand and hit her prostrate body. Pandora's mouth opened into a wide scream but no sound emerged. Waldimar gathered up his clothes and left his wife twitching feebly on the floor.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Eileen snapped back to reality when she felt Pandora's mind pushing against hers. She had stayed too long in the woman's memory.

"What did you see?" Pandora's voice was low and angry, but her eyes were wide with fear.

"Pandora"

"My husband has a very dangerous job! He works in the Department of Mysteries! I don't know how he got shot-I would never ask!"

"Pandora, please calm down..."

"How dare you! I invite you to my house and you only bring misery with you!" Pandora pointed to the scattered news articles. "Entering into my private thoughts! You might as well have undone my robe and stared at my naked body! I show you hospitality and this is how you repay my friendship?"

Eileen stood up and put her hand on the hilt of her wand. She knew what a woman was capable of in such an agitated state. A simple stunning spell would calm Pandora down and put them both out of harm's way.

She was interrupted by a high, keening wail that came from outdoors. Both women ran out of the room, out the front door, bounding down the flight of stone steps.

Winnie was sobbing. Her hair, face and clothes were coated in black, slimy mud and pig shit. Wendy anxiously followed behind, trying to soothe her older sister. Severus trailed at the end behind the two girls, arms crossed defensively over his chest. His tie was gone and his shirt tails flapped loose in the breeze. He was barefoot.

"He pushed me!" Winnie cried. "Severus pushed me into the pig sty!"

"I did not! Liar!"

"That's enough, Winifred. Stand still! _Aqua Eructo_!" A stream of water shot from the tip of Pandora's wand, drenching Winnie. She stood shivering in a puddle. The spell had removed the worst of the filth, but she was still in a state.

"Wendy, did Severus push your sister into the pig sty?" Pandora asked, staring steadily at her younger daughter.

"No. Well, he didn't push her. They were arguing. Then all of a sudden Winnie was floating in the air and "Splat!" Wendy clapped both of her hands together for effect.

"Tattler!" Severus shouted.

"Winnie, go in through the laundry. Give your clothes to Murk-he will be able to restore them. Go up into my bathroom and make sure that you use the shampoo and bath gel with peppermint essence. That should get rid of the stink." Pandora turned and faced Eileen and Severus. Her child's distress had brought her back to her former state of authoritative calm.

"It has been a long day for the children. I believe that they are all very tired. Good-bye, Severus. It was nice to meet you. Good-bye, Eileen." Pandora's voice was civil, but not friendly. She followed her daughters to the back of the house.

"Come, Severus. Let's see if we can catch the Knight Bus from the road." Eileen did not know where the portkey that would transfer them back to Cokeworth was located. She turned and walked down the lane, through the copse of trees to the dirt road. Severus followed her in sullen silence.

* * *

"Care to tell me what happened?" Eileen asked once they were seated. She had spent her last Knutes on bus fare.

"I put my tie on the goat. Wendy said that it looked better on him. I threw my shoes up into the apple tree."

"I'm not asking about your tie and shoes. What happened, Severus?"

"She made me do it!" Severus' lower lip jutted outward and his black eyes glittered. "Wendy and I were looking at the piglets and she was telling me all of the names that she had given to them. Then Winnie said wasn't it fitting that Wendy had given them all muggle names. She said that muggles weren't much better than pigs. She told me that her mother had sworn them to secrecy about our visit. Their father hates muggles. He says that they are filthy beasts. She said that because Dad is a muggle I'm a mongrel. Then she started laughing and said that I would never get sorted into Slytherin because I have too much dirty muggle blood in me!"

"I told her to shut up! I told her that I was magical. She just laughed and said in a snotty voice that the magic of half-bloods is weak and corrupt. That's when it happened. I just became really angry and my mind snapped at her and then she was face down in the pig sty." Severus closed his eyes and let out a long deep breath. He opened his eyes and looked up at Eileen.

"I'm sorry, Mam. I ruined your visit and made your friend angry with you."

"She was already upset with me, Severus," Eileen sighed.

"Did that photograph upset her, Mam?" Eileen realized with a start that she had left her photograph on Pandora's table. Well, what did it matter? She had not looked at it in years. She certainly did not want to see it again.

"No, Severus. The photograph was from a happy time. A time when all of us were happy."

"Then why did Mrs. Nott get so upset?" Severus asked, puzzled.

"Severus, sometimes when people are reminded of happier times, they realize how terrible and unhappy things are now."

"Things are terrible and unhappy in our house," he whispered. He looked tired. Maybe Pandora was right. Maybe it had been a long day for the children.

Severus leaned against his mother as the bus jostled and bumped along. She put her arm around him and gazed at his sleepy face.

"Get some rest. It will be a while before we reach home."

Eileen stared out of the window at the blue sky. As calm and blue as the beautiful sea on the Cornish coast. She suddenly recalled a song that Ethel had taught them that week. It was a bouncy, happy song and Ethel had sung it in her clear, strong voice as she danced a quick soft-shoe step.

Eileen began to sing the song in her weak, quavering voice. The words were the same, but the tune was different. In her slow, measured tones, it seemed strange and melancholy.

_By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea/!You and me, you and me, oh how happy we'll be!/ When each wave comes a-rolling in/We will duck or swim, And we'll float and fool around the water./Over and under, and then up for air,/Pa is rich, Ma is rich, so now what do we care?/I love to be beside your side, beside the sea,/Beside the seaside, by the beautiful sea!_

Eileen hugged her son closer. She closed her eyes and was again cavorting along the Cornish coast with her Slytherin Sisters.


End file.
